Memorial Day is usually not an occasion for talking about people getting sacked from their jobs, but this year it seems strangely appropriate.
The reason, of course, is the current uproar over mismanagement of health care access at the Veterans Administration, the core of a scandal now bedeviling not only the federal agency’s chief, Secretary Eric Shinseki, but also President Barack Obama. After all, the president’s own vow to overhaul the long-troubled department dates back to his days in the U.S. Senate.
Delivering on that pledge needs an all-hands-on-deck commitment, from Capitol Hill as well as the White House.
Obama has resisted calls for the Hawaii-born Shinseki’s resignation. Those have come in the wake of reports that some VA centers have kept secret lists of veterans who were kept waiting longer than the two weeks dictated by department goals. Dozens of veterans have died while still waiting for their first doctor’s appointment.
At least for the short term, holding off on a top-level firing appears to be the preferable approach. Shinseki still has to prove that he’s capable of transforming the agency, which has been a bureaucratic mess for decades.
The benefits of dismissing him at this point are largely illusory, providing merely a political scalp for someone’s trophy wall. It’s hard to imagine the replacement of a Cabinet-level appointee would be anything but a train wreck in this poisonous political climate.
Besides, Shinseki has launched initiatives that tackle myriad VA challenges, not the least of which is one that addresses the critical need for outreach to homeless veterans. He deserves at least an assessment based on a compre-
hensive review of his efforts, rather than a beheading stemming solely from the failings, however abhorrent, of subordinates.
Finally, lacking someone at the top with the power to hammer through some changes would put off indefinitely any hope of improved medical care for American veterans. That would be truly intolerable.
There does seem to be a show of resolve from the U.S. House, with the passage last week of the VA Management Accountability Act by a vote of 390 to 33. The bill essentially would make it easier to fire an administrator found to be incompetent. This seems a reasonable step to take, especially given that there’s an ongoing investigation that could corroborate the most damning reports, and necessitate swift action.
It’s unclear what may emerge from the Senate, but the initial rumblings are that leadership in the upper chamber prefers reforms that are more sweeping than a personnel housecleaning. The problems at the VA are indeed complex, but moving one step at a time would be a satisfactory way to progress. Progress is what matters, even if there are election-year headwinds that are daunting.
Memorial Day is a time for reflection on the sacrifices made by war veterans, an observance that goes back to the early years after the Civil War ended. Originally called Decoration Day, it was established as an occasion for marking the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers.
It’s a somber day to remember with clarity the true toll of war. Memorial Day keeps its focus on those whose lives were lost, but there are also the losses borne by the surviving veterans who have been so grievously wounded in America’s military engagements.
The traumatic brain injuries suffered by those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular, are difficult treatment cases even in the hands of the most skilled physicians. And we’ve only begun to confront the scale of this challenge.
Unless the VA has the resources and drive to meet the needs of its veterans, then the promises made to those who serve their country will be empty promises indeed.
